What 'behaviorism' teaches us about ourselves

Today's self-help books rely on 20th-century behavioural psychologists such as BF Skinner, Clark Hull, John B Watson and Ivan Pavlov. These thinkers prioritise observable, stimulus-response reactions over inner feelings or thoughts.

Behaviourists believed people were conditioned to respond automatically to certain cues, which caused repeated actions. However, in light of contemporary neuroscience, the behaviourist image of habit has changed. For example, the brain is malleable and allows habits to write themselves in our neural wiring over time.